UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council gave a green light on Friday to five months of talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front independence movement on a draft autonomy plan for Western Sahara. (Map).
But the council instructed U.N. special envoy and former Secretary of State James Baker, who drafted the plan, to also keep on the negotiating table the option of going ahead with a long-awaited independence referendum for the territory in northwestern Africa.
Diplomats said a resolution approved unanimously by the 15-nation council reflected a balancing act between the interests of Morocco, the Polisario and neighboring Mauritania and Algeria, who are to also take part in the talks on the future status of the phosphate-rich desert territory.
Both Rabat and the Polisario quickly said they would go ahead with the negotiations, which diplomats said was a step in the right direction in efforts to resolve the 26-year-old stalemate over Western Sahara's fate.
Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975, spurring the Polisario to launch a sporadic guerrilla war against Rabat until 1991, when a cease-fire was signed under U.N. auspices.
``We were never against negotiation,'' Polisario envoy Khadad Mhamed told Reuters after the council vote. ``I think Mr. Baker will be happy to see people around the table.''
But he added that the Polisario would still be pressing for a referendum rather than autonomy at the talks.
Morocco said in a statement the resolution gave ``a clear-cut mandate'' to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Baker to launch the talks on the basis of Baker's draft plan, which ``does not exclude self-determination but on the contrary allows for its fulfillment.''
``The kingdom of Morocco, even if it is not completely satisfied with the draft framework agreement, accepts to consider it as a valid basis for negotiations,'' it said.

DISPUTE OVER WHO CAN VOTE
The United Nations has been trying since 1992 to organize a referendum over Western Sahara, but the effort has bogged down amid arguments over who is eligible to vote, with the Polisario accusing Morocco of padding voter registration lists.
Annan reported to the council last week that Baker, who has been working since 1997 to break the impasse, had concluded it was doubtful the parties would ever agree on referendum terms.
Annan asked the council to endorse talks on the draft plan rather than on both the plan and a hoped-for referendum.
But council members including Russia, Ireland, Singapore, Jamaica, Mauritius, Mali and Bangladesh insisted that the referendum remain an option, diplomats said.
Council divisions hardened after Algeria, which backs the Polisario, wrote the council this week accusing Annan of ''shamelessly taking sides'' in asking that the referendum be put on ice.
Baker said this week after briefing the council that his plan did not abandon a referendum but merely put it ``on hold.''
Calling the plan ``a political solution to a very difficult and intractable problem,'' he said it was his experience ``that the only time we have made any progress is when we have gotten the parties to come to the table and talk.''
The resolution approved on Friday renewed the U.N. mission in Western Sahara, known as MINURSO, through November. At that time, Baker would report back to the council on any results.